Smoking is a national and global epidemic. Tobacco companies manufacture five and a half trillion cigarettes a year. That is nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman, and child on the planet. Global consumption of cigarettes has been rising steadily since their introduction at the beginning of the 20th century. While consumption is leveling off and even decreasing in some countries, worldwide more people are smoking, and smokers are smoking more cigarettes. The number of smokers will increase mainly due to the expansion of the world's population. By 2030 there will be at least another 2 billion people in the world (Census Bureau). Even if prevalence rates fall, the absolute number of smokers will increase.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 70% of smokers want to quit smoking, and 35% attempt to quit every year. Unfortunately, fewer than 5% of those smokers attempting to quit succeed. The number one recommended therapy for smokers desiring to quit is Nicotine Replacement Therapy (also known as NRT). The most common delivery methods for nicotine are a pill/lozenge, a patch, or a gum. However, these therapies do nothing to address the behavioral addiction of smoking.
The average smoker smokes 15 cigarettes a day and takes an average of 10 “drags” or inhalations per cigarette. Thus the behavioral addiction is reinforced in a smoker's body 150 times per day every day for as many years as the smoker has had the habit. The hand-to-mouth tactile experience of smoking, oral fixation, deep inhalation, sensation of smoke hitting the back of the throat, and the exhalation are all behavioral traits that smokers are addicted to experiencing during the act of smoking. Further, the ritual of smoking is associated with everyday events: after a meal, at coffee breaks, driving or riding in a car, stressful events, etc. While the dopamine “high” that nicotine provides is addicting, a therapy for addressing the behavioral addiction is also needed.